About Me

Evolution of Play, Revolution of Gender

Breaking the Pink Aisle for Adventurous Play Sets and Playground Equipment

Ever since we can remember, the general rule for gift giving was this-anything black, blue, mechanical, pirate play sets,
metallic, cars, etc. are for boys while dolls and anything pink are for
girls. It’s a stereotype that people didn’t wanted to get out of, until
the “breaking the pink aisle” revolution broke out.

Pushing
that aside, there’s still something troubling. Research shows there is a
link to the lack of female engineers and the usual gender play
stereotyping.

Females in the Engineering and Tech Field… Or lack of them
It’s
a known fact, however annoying it is, that there are not a lot of women
in the technology or engineering departments, even though these two are
one of the most successful and fastest growing industries in the world.

Science Daily explains
that this is because of gender stereotyping during play time-boys
should play with the usual “toys for boys” and girls should play with
“toys for girls”. They also mentioned a lot of scientific things that
are too wordy and heavy for our taste. But they all basically mean that
by generalizing children like this, little girls will tend to grow up
with a lesser spatial skills than boys.

What’s spatial ability for?
Science
Daily gives further explanations stating that girls playing “boys’
games” can help them do better in Science and Math because those games
can increase their spatial abilities. But what exactly are spatial
abilities?

Johns Hopkins University defines it as a type of intelligence
that deals with “the capacity to understand and remember the spatial
relations among objects.” Simply speaking, it’s a skill needed in
solving everyday problems like cutting vegetables, reading a map, or
fixing a broken lamp. It’s also a skill needed in answering questions
that make students quiver during their exams in their Math and Science
classes.

Breaking the Pink Aisle and Saying Goodbye to Princesses
In
the defense of dolls and anything pink that are given too often to
girls, these kinds of toys still help develop verbal and language
skills, and perhaps a little creativity. Unfortunately, these skills are
already learned in school while spatial ability is something better
learned outside of a classroom. The toys designed specifically for girls
can also sometimes have negative implications.

So what would be
best for little girls? Besides giving them the choice of playing with
whatever toy they prefer, it would be best to give them a wide array of
options. The worst thing a parent can do is to limit the toys or kinds
of play sets for their children as it would also limit their development
and creativity. Plus, wouldn’t it be better to have less girls dreaming
of being princesses searching for their princes and more girls dreaming
of being scientists, engineers, or the female versions of Albert
Einstein, Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates?

Encouraging Children’s Spatial Abilities for a Brighter Futures
Spatial
activity can be developed through training and simple play activities.
The earliest and most common kind of activity to help foster spatial
abilities in kids is through puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles, ball activity panels,
and legos can help children be smarter and more creative and at the
same time have fun (with their parents also having fun with them).
Tic-tac-toe are also good examples of such games and puzzles and, not to
mention, it helps develop children’s relationships with other people.

Simple
household activities such as asking children which groceries can fit in
which bags are simple spatial problems that would aid in their mental
development. Everyday opportunities like these should be taken advantage
for spatial thinking.

One of the best places, aside from their
own home, to foster their spatial intelligence is at the playground,
whether it be in a park or just their own residential playgrounds. Themed play sets are a fun choice, especially those that are built like a fossilized dinosaur, climbable boulders, or a firehouse and truck
to fuel their imaginations and build their spatial intelligence.
They’re also unbelievably more fun than Barbie dolls and kitchen sets.

But
of course, the best way of learning this kind of intelligence is when
both parents and children are involved in these activities.
Encouragement coming from parents is the best support the children can
have.

It shouldn’t be about the gender stereotypes and the pink
aisle revolution, it should be about the kids themselves and what toys
they’d enjoy playing and would help them learn.